FORWARD

My first impression of the game of tennis was when i was about 7 years old , the year was 1976 and a long haired Swedish gentleman threw his racket in the air with delight at winning Tennis's Holy Grail , Wimbledon . From that year i watched him play some true legends , Connors , McEnroe, Gerulaitis, players who for me shaped the game into what it is today. I was hooked on the game . The game has changed a lot since i was a kid , the personalities that i mentioned were players who did things on a tennis court that you simply don't see anymore. These players expressed their emotions and let the audience see who they were, they let us inside their personalities.
They inspired me to a point that at age 12 i told myself i wanted to become a professional tennis player. This was my dream . I read a book that my Grandpa gave to my sister for her birthday , it was Bjorn Borg's biography, a fascinating read, i perhaps read it 25 times.
I did my best to make it as a professional tennis player , i played full time tennis in Queensland from the ages of 16 to 18 years  , it defined me as a person. I met some people who inspired me , their goal was just like mine , to be the best we could be, even if it meant making sacrifices. It was educational.
When i was 21 i decided to travel to Europe to see the best play in a series of money tournaments, it was an eye opener, the standard throughout Paris and Germany was extraordinary. By a huge coincidence the year that i went was the year that my hero and inspiration to play the game Bjorn Borg decided to make a come back . Unfortunately i didn't make it to Monte Carlo to watch his failed bid to reclaim glory but i watched him play the match on television from a sporting club in Paris.
I visited the Monte Carlo Country Club 3 weeks later, an experience i will never forget. It was an almost eerie feeling to visit the venue that a player of such stature played his final match, both in 1982 as a farewell to the tour and again in 1991 as a come back. If not for Borg i probably would have played hockey or football. I still make reference to both him and fellow players of that era when i teach kids to play the game at my lessons.
I decided to write this book as a dedication to those players who shaped the game of tennis from when i was a kid to a culmination of my European tour in 1991. This book has some stories of players who are no longer with us but left an impression on both myself and the game. It also has some light hearted stories of when playing the game was more about having fun and not playing for outrageous amounts of money that is the case today.
This book does not cover every match from 1976 to 1991 but it captures some moments that i will treasure . The beauty of modern technology now days is that many of these moments can now be looked up on You Tube, moments that were lost for years until brought back to life by tennis lovers.
I will add a link at the bottom of each chapter that is available on You Tube so you the reader can also see the event in reality.
I hope you enjoy these accounts in history on the Men's game that personally i will look back on with the fondest of memories.
Glenn Thompson
Tennis Coach and fanatic